Managing Libraries

Lead the Change, now entering its fourth year, has illustrated to us just how deep the need is for leadership development. A 2014 survey of 550-plus Movers & Shakers stressed the need for the entire staff to be up to speed on innovations in libraries and personal leadership.

Going beyond books, library gift shops are raising funds and awareness for a growing number of Friends and foundations. Libraries have long held sales of deaccessioned or donated books once or twice a year, usually run by all-volunteer Friends of the Library organizations. Many have dedicated spaces or rooms where books can be purchased year-round. These in-house used bookshops are moneymakers for libraries, with stock that’s often liberally seeded with last year’s best sellers. Following the lead of many bookstores, libraries are discovering a strong source of fundraising revenue in nonbook merchandise.

With the huge volume of leadership advice that’s generated weekly what’s a leader supposed to do? It’s not only the lack of time for taking it all in, but to what extent should it influence your leadership style.

On January 5 Vickery Bowles became Toronto’s newest city librarian. Bowles has been with the Toronto Public Library (TPL) for 32 years, most recently as director of collections management and citywide services, and will now oversee one of the world’s busiest library systems, with 99 (soon to be 100) branches, some 2,000 employees, and 10 million items in its collections.

After serving as executive director of the Omaha Public Library since January 2010, Gary Wasdin recently made a move across the country to take on the position of library director of the King County Library System (KCLS), WA. KCLS, chosen as the Gale/LJ 2011 Library of the Year, is a thriving and diverse library system spread across the 2,000 square mile county to the north, south, and east of Seattle (which maintains its own library system). The 48-branch system serves both urban and rural areas, and is currently well into a $172 million capital bond renovation and expansion program launched in 2004. Bill Ptacek, previously director of the King County system for 25 years, left in December 2013 to become CEO of the Calgary Public Library in Canada.

Over the last decade, Belgrade, MT, has grown and shifted from a small agricultural town to a diverse community of 12,700 in the exurbs of nearby Bozeman. In tandem, the Belgrade Community Library (BCL) has reimagined library services and aggressively developed new outreach efforts to meet the community’s changing needs. The result is intense engagement and support from the community and an impact that extends beyond Belgrade’s borders through active partnerships and state-level leadership.

In March 2011, the Boise Public Library (BPL), ID, used $3,300 in Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant funding to purchase four iPad 2 tablets and all of the trimmings. As it turned out, BPL may have been a couple of years ahead of its time. This conversation is now coming full circle. Technological advances continue to make tablets lighter, faster, and more affordable. Vendors have recently launched interfaces that make it possible to use a staff tablet to perform tasks ranging from weeding books to signing up new cardholders. Also, applying lessons learned about these devices during the past five years, many libraries are rebooting or enhancing the way tablets are integrated into roving reference, off-site programs, and other workflows.

Early in the morning of November 20 a lone gunman opened fire in Florida State University’s (FSU) Strozier Library, wounding three people. Around 12:30 a.m. staff and students inside Strozier called campus police to report that an armed subject, later identified as Myron May, had fired four shots outside the library and in its first floor lobby. Campus Law enforcement arrived in a matter of minutes to find May outside the library. When he ignored requests to drop his gun, then fired on the officers, he was shot and killed. Two of May’s victims were transported to local hospitals; a third was treated and released at the scene. While the incident was tragic for all involved, and for the FSU community as a whole, it was also notable for the many ways in which it averted a worse outcome.

Library security systems are described as “non-glamourous work-horses” on Bibliotheca’s website. It’s true that the core function—to deter theft and prevent materials that haven’t been properly checked out from accidentally walking out of the library—hasn’t changed much since 3M launched its Tattle Tape electromagnetic (EM) security system in the 1970s. However, many of the latest systems feature new functionality enhanced by RFID tags, along with sleek, unobtrusive design that gives public entryways a modern appearance.